Among The Haven COWL's Flock
by NightCowl
Summary: Same timeframe as Knights and Angels Under The wing. These are side stories of characters Gabriel and Joshua that takes place during the Three months. How they actual meet in greater detail how they develop their strange friendship. Rating for Language. Spoiler Alert: It is recommened to finish Return to Grace Arc of Knights and Angels Under The Wing before you read this.


**Among The Haven COWL's Flock**

**#1**

**The Three Months**

**Part 1**

**The Chance Encounter**

**Authors Note: ****Do not read this if you haven't finish Return to Grace Arc from Knights and Angels Under The Wing.**

* * *

_My name is Gabriel Stamen and I hate this city._

_Bludhaven, a place where you will always be surrounded by crime and violence and thanks to fate I lived in the worst parts of Bludhaven. You would think I would at least have good parents to balance out the pure suckage of my life, but Bludhaven never works that way I soon discovered with my nineteen years of living here. My father was a part-time tow trucker and part-time carjacker or in his own words a car delivery man; I was eleven at time when I found out the true and hated my father since. My mother was part of an escort service; until she left my father and I for another man._

_They never used the money they earn to support the family, only for their selfish gains._

_No point in me crying about it now, been there done that but there was one happy thing I had in my life._

_There __**was one single light in my life**__, he was my uncle; Devin Stamen. My uncle was the 'white sheep' of the family, according to my father. My uncle was from my father's side, and clearly did not fall victim into becoming part of problem in Bludhaven. He was smart, very smart and had a job as a computer programming. __Every day since I was 7 after Catholic school I would spend time with my uncle. We always have talks while eating peanut and jelly bagels; he always asked me how my day is and I always complain about school or the people. He always laughed while I vented my frustrations and always told me to 'suck it up princess.'_

_After, he would show me what he does for a living, and his other skills in computers as well. He taught me everything he knew, and I somehow understood it fast. __I wouldn't say I'm a genius but when it comes straight to computers or programming I am very good. In fact I am so good I may of take little self-education in hacking; I don't do anything illegal of course, just some common mischief. __I think he loved having me around, ever since he lost his wife from a stray bullet. It was from a drug deal that gone wrong across the street from her when she was innocently walking their pet dog. _

_The love for my __uncle is more than my parents and considered him my true father. __My uncle is my inspiration to be like him, use the skills I learn to make an honest life a__nd I thought I would be happy when I get to work for him when I graduated out of highschool._

_Then one night change it all._

* * *

**[Week 1]**

It was close to evening as Gabriel, the nineteen year old looked up in amazement on the Orion Computers building that was at the very heart of the Centre Commercial District. Bludhaven was the near middle of Autumn; and Gabriel could feel the cold breeze on his skin and smell the distinct maple leaves that decomposed. He adjusted his laptop bag over his shoulder; while he took another sip of his coffee. Even when this was his fourth day at work the building still amazed him. How his uncle who grew up in a similar rough life style as himself be the chairmen of such a establish company at the age of 37.

If Devin could overcome the odds, than Gabriel believed that he was able to do the same.

But more importantly he wanted to make his uncle proud.

"Gabs," a man called out in front of him.

Gabriel looked in front of him to see his uncle at the bottom of the stone steps that lead directly to the front doors of the building; he waved at him while he lightened up his cigarette. Devin stood casually as he enjoyed the nicotine, his long overcoat grey that covered most of his body and his black hair blew with the gust of wind.

"Devin," the Gabriel smiled as he made his to the stone steps to his uncle. "I thought you quit?" the nephew frowned.

Devin chuckled as he tapped off some ash from the top of his cigarette.

"Very hard to quit when you running a company of idiots like this," he smiled as he lightly punched his nephew in the shoulder; it hurt far more that it should.** He felt like he got hit by steel.** "So how is your first few days in our IT department on evenings?" he asked in a very spooky tone like he was in the middle of a climax of a ghost story. "You enjoying it?"

"Hell no, I'm actually getting tired of asking 'Have you tried turning it off and on again?'," Gabriel scoffed with the constant reminder just how stupid some of the office staff could be.

Devin smiled at his nephew as he tossed the butt of his cigarette on the ground.

"You know, that offer of being a board member is still opened, you don't have to to much and collect a nice fat pay cheque."

"You mean where I get condescending looks from old farts who are clearly out of depth, Nope." Gabriel answered with a wry smile. "Besides my plan is to work an honest job, save up some money go to school. Get an actual degree in computer programing and flip the people off that say I couldn't do it." Gabriel smirked.

"That would be a mighty long list of people to flip off Gabs, you are not with good with people," Devin pointed out.

"Well do you blame me? I'm not good with people because..."

"Most people are assholes," both said as they shared a laugh.

"Speaking of which, are you on your best behavior?" he buried his blow. "I don't have to worry about any verbal harassment from your end? Even I can't wave off something from HR for you. Don't do anything else that might jeopardize your job."

"Yeah, yeah yeah..." Gabriel rolled his eyes.

He wished that he would stay true to his words, he wished his curious nature didn't get the better of him, that way he would never found out the truth about his uncle.

Gabriel sat alone in his cubical alone in the wide office floor, he was thankful that only person scheduled tonight was him. He didn't want people to see what he has done.

He only meant to take on some peek at a hidden connection to the company database; he didn't expect for the connected to be from his uncle private computer. And he didn't expect to find one bank statement which made Gabriel shuddered in anger and fear. Through those emotions he dove deeper into the rabbit hole an uncovered his uncle plans of drug trafficking of Out-Soul. His uncle wanted to be the next crime lord in Bludhaven, named Rhodeblock. The pedestal he built for his uncle in Gabriel's mind shattered. There was no point in talking with his uncle about this...Gabriel knew.

The only thing that Gabriel cared about now was for his uncle to be in a jail cell.

* * *

**[Week 2]**

The police were of no help when he called them to leave an anonymous tip about his uncle, it should have been simple. But it wasn't, his anger built up inside when he heard the condescension on other side of the line of the police department. Gabriel never liked the police, he had too many experiences with corrupted police officers before that he assumed that his uncle could have easily bride them for protection. So even if he provided evidence about his uncle directly toward the police, the was a great chance that they could easily dismissed the evidence and Gabriel would find himself behind bars for cyberhacking.

He knew it sound crazy but he decided to take it up into his own hands.

Gabriel was very careful not to leave a digital trail when he dug even deeper in his uncle or as he called himself Rhodeblock's drug business. With time and mostly luck; he found a 'payroll' of list of small time local dealers. From there it was only a matter of time on that he managed to find some information of the drug dealers on that list by 'simple' cross check from criminal profiles from the Bludhaven Police Department. It also helped that computer security of the Police Department is unsurprisingly pathetic in his eyes. Not only did he find connections between the Rhodeblock 'payroll' and some of the drug dealers, he also found connections of bribery of many police officers. If he managed to pull this off, Rhodeblock would be behind bars and hopefully so would the corrupted police officers as well.

His next planned was simple in his eyes; find one of the drug dealers on the list, track him down, video record the deal.

There was one man Gabriel took interest in Fort Joseph District; Elroy Sparrow a middle-aged man who only had one charge of possession and a long list of assault charges that were 'dropped' later. Base on the information he gathered; Fort Joseph District was Elroy Sparrow main section of operations. It wasn't a big district but that didn't change the fact Gabriel was only one man. Gabriel devoted most of the week trying to find Elroy, unfortunately he couldn't. The would be cyber hero suddenly realize just how useless he was if he didn't have a computer in front of him.

**It really didn't help that it started to snow in Autumn.**

He bit his cold lip in frustration, he already wasted time on the police and he already wasted time on a foolish plan to find a man. He decided to call it a night and waited by the bus stop; it was well past 1 AM when he checked his watch. He waited patiently for the bus as he kicked some snow off the sidewalk, then in his peripheral vision stood Elroy Sparrow. He was across the street, and the first thing that Gabriel noticed that 5'8 120 pounds on Elroy's criminal profile was clearly wrong. Elroy Sparrow was a clear 6'2 and good 180 pounds from what he saw from across the street.

Gabriel gulped hard as he found his feet moved on his own and followed Elroy down the street; he was thankful that Elroy didn't notice him. The young man pulled out his cell phone and place it next to his ear as if he was on the phone a simple cover up but Gabriel didn't have the time to planned this far ahead. His thumb was on hovered over the camera app on the touch screen. He needed to be ready as he saw Elroy crossed the corner of the street and into alley way.

"Morris," Elroy called out as he entered into the alley way.

Gabriel hide himself at the cornered of a building and held his breath; he put on a ski masked and wanted to punch himself in the face for not doing it sooner. He could barely hear the conversation the two men in the alley way were having; Gabriel took a quick peek. Elroy and a man he assumed went by the name Morris were deep in the alley way.

"Elroy? Where you been man? Word on the street someone is offing you 'people'..."

"The less you know Morris the better," Elroy threatened. "I'm holding."

"The new stuff?"

"Out-Soul," Elory nodded.

This was the moment Gabriel waited for these past few days, he smiled underneath his ski mask as he hit the camera app on his cell phone.

His smile quickly disappeared when he forgotten that his camera had auto light feature when recording in the dark; they were alerted to Gabriel presence and the only thing the young man could do is run as fast as he could. If he knew he would be running for his safety at any point in his life he would have paid more attention to his physical heath. The chase only lasted seconds when Elroy managed to get a hold of the collar of Gabriel's coat and dragged him into a small abandon parking lot. He struggled with anger as he tried to pull away from the giant man grasp; Elroy punched Gabriel in stomach. Gabriel fell on his knees in pain as he wheezed for air.

At this point Morris forced the cellphone from Gabriel's hands tossed into the ground and smashed it bottom of his 12 size boot. The phone was electronic street pizza.

"Who is this asshole?" Morris asked.

"Don't know, don't care," Elroy licked his dry lips as be pulled out a knife.

Gabriel knew what type of knife it was; his father had plenty of knives at his old home all different shape and styles. The knife that Elroy playfully waved around, was a stiletto. Sweat ran down his face underneath Gabriel ski mask when he remember one specific detail about Elroy Sparrow criminal profile on his assault charges that were eventually 'dropped'; they all involved knives.

At that moment, Gabriel feared for his life; he was alone in the abandon parking lot with two men who clearly wanted to kill him.

"I already called the police, and soon enough you assholes will be behind bars," Gabriel lied underneath his ski mask as his eyes couldn't leave the stiletto in Elroy's hand.

It was a bluff he knew it just as much as the two men that hovered over him.

"You know what hate about you little shits?" Elroy asked when he knelt in front of Gabriel while Morris used his foot to pressed Gabriel's body down on the cold wet concrete of the parking lot. "You wanna be heroes bleed to fast," he chuckled as reached over to Gabriel's ski mask. "Now lets see that face of yours and lets see how fast you bleed."

Gabriel froze in fear as he felt the weight of Morris foot pressed down on him; Elroy slowly lifted up Gabriel's ski mask slowly on purpose. It was like he wanted to savour the moment, but just as the mask was lifted above Gabriel's mouth...

**A sardonic laugh echoed within the abandon parking lot the laughter was strangely upbeat**; Elroy stood up confused on where the laughter came from.

"You two will be the ones to bleed tonight." The laughter continued.

Elroy signaled Morris to look around; the man nodded at the order as he removed his foot off Gabriel's back only for it to replace by Elroy's foot.

"You're not going anyway, don't bother," Elroy spat on his Gabriel's face.

"Fuck..you," Gabriel hissed as he felt his saliva ran down his the side of his nose.

"I'll be sure to cut your tongue out," Elroy smirked as he licked his lips again. "Morris, you see anything?"

Morris took one careful look behind the garbage dumpster his back against them.

"Nah," Morris called back. "Must of ran of scared, so about we-" Morris couldn't even finished his sentence as someone in a white hoodie popped out from inside the dumpster and hit him straight in face with a stone brick.

The impact was enough to break Morris nose; he tasted blood as blood ran down from his bloody broken nose. Morris felt another hit from the stone brick wielded offender on the side of his jaw, it was enough to knock Morris out.

Gabriel blinked as the large man, Morris fell to the ground clearly knocked out. Elroy gritted his teeth and took his frustration on Gabriel as he kicked the back of his head; Gabriel moaned and hs vision became blurry.

"HEY! Leave him alone!" the figure in the white hoodie ordered.

Elory scoffed at ordered.

"You have no idea who your messing with boy." he spat back.

"Yeah dumb," the figure pointed at Morris on the ground. "Dumber," he pointed at Elory.

"The name is Elory I crave that on your face!" he yelled as he charge toward the figure in the white hoodie.

The blow Gabriel's head was enough to make his vision blurry; but it didn't change the fact what he saw in front of him. Elroy easily towered over the figure in the white hoodie; something like the over told stories of David and Goliath he learned from his time at Catholic School.** But it wasn't a rock that turn the tide of the battle it was something else entirely; it was a taser gun.**

The two metal probes hit the neck of Elroy when the figure jump on his back to avoid the swing of Elroy's knife and fire the taser gun. The electrical discharge flowed into his body as he dropped the stiletto on the ground when his muscles began to spasm, his body soon followed. The figure in the white figure didn't waste time when the electrical discharge stopped from his taser gun; he jumped on Elroy body and punched Elroy's temple in quick brutal succession; it took eight hard hits to finally take Elroy down to unconsciousness.

"Wow...that was close...too close..." The figure said to himself as he picked up himself up to his feet and made his way to Gabriel. "Hey you okay?" he offered his hand.

Gabriel bit his lip; he couldn't belive it. A young teenager just saved his life.

"I'm fine," Gabriel picked up what was left of his crushed cellphone as rose to his feet. He took a glance at the two men on the ground motionless and got a good look at his 'hero'. Dirty white hoodie, red scarf that covered his face, ripped on jeans, courier bag, musky smell, all spelled one thing for Gabriel. The kid in front of him was homeless. "So whats the catch?"

"Catch?" he titled his head.

"Yeah catch, you want money or something?" Gabriel shouted.

"Have no idea what you are talking about, your safe, dumb and dumber are down for the count so don't see why I would need money," he answered as he placed the small taser gun in his courier bag.

"Would you piss off already?" Gabriel shouted in frustration. "You seriously telling me you saved my life just because of the goodness in your heart? And how does a bum like you have taser gun like that?"

"I will...Yes...I took it." he answered.

"Okay who the hell are you," Gabriel may of met the most annoying person in his life.

"Oh," he pulled back his white hood and pulled down his red scarf to show his face.

What the young Asian teenager said next confirmed to Gabriel that he was in fact the most annoying person in his life.

"You can call me Joshua Dayton, and I save your life. You're welcome." he beamed.

**NEXT TIME: The Strange Partnership.**


End file.
